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Council hears correction center plan

Project to bring more jobs to the area

Doug Carrigan explains the community corrections process to the Lamar City Council March 7 (Chris Frost / Lamar Ledger)

The Lamar City Council heard a presentation about a new halfway house in the area from Doug Carrigan during its work session on March 7.

Carrigan said he has been working on the project for about five years and involves adult community corrections. He has a facility in Sterling, called Advantage Treatment Center, which is something the current criminal justice system doesn't have.

What is community corrections?

"Community corrections deal with the people who are already in your community and are returning back to your community," he said.

He said the local department of corrections and probation departments do an excellent job with the tools they have, in a rural area, it is possible they may have to check on a client in Eads or La Junta and check on couple in Springfield.

Councilwoman Beverly Haggard led the questions about the proposed community corrections center in Lamar during the council work session, March 7. (Chris Frost / Lamar Ledger)

"If they are not where they are supposed to be or no longer in the area, it's challenging to manage their populations the way they do it now," he said.

He called community corrections a viable option.

"This is something I have been talking with criminal justice professionals for several years now," he said.

He said they are on-board with the project 100 percent.

"It makes their job easier and it makes the community safer," he said. "Anytime you have another tool in your toolbox to help supervise and hold those people accountable who are returning from an incarceration situation it benefits the community."

The clients

He called community corrections a highly regulated environment.

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"Every movement made by a client, and we do refer to them as clients, is done so with planning and preparation," he said.

Movement, he said, is monitored through the community.

One thing they are required to do is to remain sober and breathe in a breathalyzer two or three times a day.

"They give urinalysis tests repeatedly," he said.

He said the clients will also go to treatment.

"When I say treatment in this type of setting, it's not treatment with a hug, its treatment with accountability," he said.

Part of the treatment, he said, is to recognize there are also victims and paying them back with restitution and court costs.

"They are required to set up a budget to start preparing for their eventual release back in the community," he said.

The clients are also required to take in-depth treatment.

"They earn any extra luxury they get," he said.

The project will bring between 12 and 24 jobs to the community.

Carrigan said his facility in Sterling employs 26 people and called it a collaboration and partnership.

"The community and criminal justice system very much supports us," he said.

In return, Carrigan says Advantage Treatment Center support them.

"We do a lot of things in the community, a lot of charities and food drives," he said. "Our clients do a lot of free community service."

He called it part of the deal the clients make at the facility.

His goal at the meeting was to educate people about the concept.

"I think so many people are off-base about what they first think it is," he said.

The program will not bring new offenders to the area.

"We are looking to deal with the ones who are already here and are looking to come back," he said. "We are looking to be an additional resource."

With that said, Carrigan wants to help locate, monitor and help their clients' progress.

Carrigan has local roots and said he grew up on a ranch between Kim and Pritchard.

"I love the southeast corner of the state and I think this makes a lot of sense," he said.

He also loves Lamar.

"The officials here have been very helpful, forthright, and I am really impressed with how all your government are vested in this community and want to see it grow and see jobs come," he said.

He offered to meet with any neighbor who has reservations about the program.

The questions

Mayor Roger Stagner said the group has not yet picked a location.

Councilwoman Beverly Haggard works at CCA Prison in Bent County and said she has spent over 300 hours trying to bring a private prison to the community.

"I got slapped in the face," she said.

Stagner said people need to understand that it won't be a prison like the one in La Junta.

"It's going to be bringing back people who are going to be coming anyway," he said.

Carrigan said the clients can be on parole or probation.

"Any member of the community can meet with me face-to-face," he said. "I won't duck-them, they earned that, and they are a citizen here."

He pledged to meet and discuss concerns, but reminded the group it is a different concept.

"Whatever site we pick, I will talk directly with those neighbors," he said. "I won't run from that."

Haggard wanted to know what the rate of pay will be at the facility and Carrigan said the employees will make about $12.47 per hour.

"Do you do your own training or do you send them to the state for training," Haggard asked.

Carrigan said they are highly regulated by the department of criminal justice and there is some training required by the state.

"There is other where we have a little more freedom," he said.

He noted that his Sterling facility partners with the department of corrections and parole departments.

"All of our training has to be approved through the division of criminal justice," he said. "There are some that is required that certain staff must take to meet that position.

One example, he said, is when someone gets promoted from security to case manager.

Carrigan said people will sleep at the facility and any activity is highly structured.

"Most of the clients are going to come there and earn privileges," he said.

They will be on-hold until the facility, he said, until they can assess them and see where they're at.

"Each person who comes through the door is an individual and they all have different needs," he said.

The needs of the clients are important, he said, and so is community safety.

"It's going to be a little different for each person," he said. "One person might be white collar with a drug addiction and the next guy may have a learning disability."

At some point the clients will be approved to get a job and look for work, he said, which they would do anyway.

"They don't make a move without it being pre-planned," Carrigan said.

The parole and probation department must also agree.

"Then we continually monitor that persons whereabouts," he said. "We'll make sure they are, in fact, where they're at."

There is more than that, he said, and they must do things in the community and perform community service projects and go to treatment classes.

"We don't want somebody who has a drug or alcohol problem in relapse prevention," he said. "We want them in a class that is appropriate for them."

The goal is to fill the client days up with pro-social client activities.

Carrigan said he still needs to reach out to the Lamar Police Department

"I've talked heavily with the Sheriff's Department, the parole department, the district attorney and the public defender's office," he said. "I've got some work to do with the college, but I can tell you in Sterling they have a community college and it has to be a partnership on all sorts of levels."

A new employee that starts in security can have a degree, he said, but sometimes experience will be looked at.

"What we are looking for is someone who can understand the balance between helping a client succeed and community safety," he said. "When clients succeed that is community safety."

Carrigan didn't provide an exact timeline, but said he hopes to be up and running in about 12 months.

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